little garcon
by frizzoli
Summary: jane/maura established. baby's first dance recital, based off the most recent modern family episode. because this fandom needs more fluff and this idea wouldn't leave me alone. just a oneshot. reviews much appreciated!
1. Chapter 1

"Where's Mommy?"

Angela skillfully avoided the question by moving around behind Addie and straightening her crooked bow. Not that it was her place to answer, exactly, but Jane had kind of hoped she might be able to dodge a bullet. Of course when her _own_ mother decided to be quiet for once it happened to be during a crisis like this.

Jane crouched to her daughter's level, pressing her lips together briefly before she attempted to answer. Maura had wanted to be there, after all- more than anything. Probably a hell of a lot more than Jane wanted to be there. It had been a long, terrible week and Jane's headache had lasted for half of it. What she really wanted to be doing right now was sleeping. But Addie needed her to be there. And she wasn't going to _ever_ be the kind of parent to let down her own child like that, so she had popped some Advils and decided to grin and bear it.

Of course, then Maura called, with an urgent conference call with Quantico suddenly scheduled, and Jane's last resort was to pick up Angela and hope to God that question wouldn't come up, even though she knew it would.

"Uh." She cleared her throat and glanced up to see Angela raise an eyebrow, still messing with the stupid bow, offering no help whatsoever. Of course. "Mommy had to stay at work for a while." Addie's eyebrows drew together in an almost comically reminiscent way of the hundreds of times Maura had made that _exact_ face at something Jane had said. "She's not gonna be here?"

Angela finally jumped in, pressing a reverent kiss to the top of the little girl's head. "Don't worry, angel, I'll videotape it so she gets to see the whole thing." In the background the girls started to gather as the teachers rounded them up to head backstage. "Hey," Jane finally managed to get her mouth moving again just as Addie started to go, "it's gonna be okay, alright? You'll be great."

She stood up and gave Angela a significant look. "Shut up," she said under her breath, "Maura's the one that's good at this stuff, not me."

.,.

Twenty minutes passed. Jane checked her phone so many times that even _she_ realized she looked stupid, but she couldn't stop. If there was even a tiny chance that Maura could get there in time to see Adeline dance, disaster could be averted. If not…she had no idea. Maura was _Mommy_. She was Mom. She was the cool one, the one Addie went to when she wanted to go swimming or sledding or out for ice cream. She wasn't the comforting one, she was the _fun_ parent.

Who knew having a five-year-old was so goddamn complicated?

She was jolted out of her thoughts when a thin blonde crouched next to her seat and touched her arm. "I'm Addie's teacher," she offered by way of explanation. "We have a problem." Angela, of course, immediately leaned forward, eyes alight with the possibility of a disaster she might be able to make even worse by trying to fix.

"A problem?"  
"I'm afraid Addie doesn't want to dance."

_That's it?_ "Oh, okay. Uh…I'll just go get her, then." But before she could get up, the other woman had stopped her with a firm shake of her head. "It's vitally important to Addie's self-esteem that she perform tonight, Mrs. Rizzoli."

"Detective," Jane muttered, completely out of instinct. "I'll go talk to her. Do I have time to talk to her?" _Maura would know what to do._

.,.

"Addie?"

Her daughter turned to look at her but didn't leave the little makeup table. There was something a little grotesque about the child-sized sink and makeup, and _definitely_ something awkward about sitting on a stool that was so small, but she managed. "Hi, sweetheart. Your teacher tells me you don't want to dance."

Addie shook her head, her little brown ringlets bouncing every which way.

"But you practiced so hard!"

Addie shook her head again, adamant. A thought occurred to Jane, far too slowly and far too late. "Are you upset because Mommy's not here?"

There was a pause, and then, slowly, Addie nodded. Jane tipped Addie's chin up with her index finger and did her best to do Maura's job- fix it. "She's so proud of you, sweetheart. I promise she is, even if she's not here."

"I'm not dancing," Addie said in reply, though her resolve seemed to soften. Jane sighed, running a hand through her hair. "Okay, okay, fine. Tell me what I have to do. Candy? A puppy? What?"

Addie leaned forward and Jane obediently did the same so her daughter could whisper in her ear. "Can you dance with me?" Jane immediately jerked back with a nervous laugh, shaking her head. "Oh, no. No, no, believe me, that's a bad idea. No way, I…"

It was like Maura's stupid puppy-dog eyes were peering at her from Addie's face. How could she say no? How could she screw up such an important night? This wasn't about her. This was about Addie, and it was about damn time she grew up and did what she was there to do. "Okay," she said, finally, and the smile that broke across her girl's face was more than worth week upon week like the week she'd just had.

.,.

Maura arrived seconds before they took the stage. She stayed back against the recital hall's back wall for fear of disturbing anyone, but when the lights came up and Addie took the stage with Jane in tow, she felt sure her gasp could be heard up in the front row.

Addie took first position. Jane attempted the same. The audience was silent, but Maura had to cover her mouth to keep from laughing out loud at the sight. As the dance went on, her smile grew, until it was so wide that it hurt, and her heart so full of love for her family that she wondered how she had missed this side of Jane for so long.

When the applause began, hers was the loudest, and when Jane looked out into the audience and saw Maura's face, she discovered something that she had never realized before.

She was just as much Mommy as Maura was.


	2. Chapter 2

Jane wasn't sure she had ever been this close to losing her mind in her _entire _life.

It was bad enough that Maura spoke French. Even worse that Maura knew Jane had a weakness for it, for the way the doctor's mouth curled around those stupid, unintelligible, _beautiful _words. But to teach their daughter French on top of all that? She was going to lose it. She was going to absolutely, one hundred percent, _lose her goddamn mind._

Addie bounced in her seat and neither her nor aproned Maura noticed Jane in the doorway of the kitchen. "Pouvons-nous avoir des crêpes?" Maura laughed and pinched Addie's nose. "Of course we can." Jane wasn't sure she had ever seen anything so disgustingly cute. "I hate to interrupt the Tour de France," she said, giving Addie's pigtail a playful tug, "but would you mind scooting over? You're blocking my bacon." Maura gave her a dissapproving look, but leaned in for a good-morning kiss anyway. Addie made a retching noise and covered her eyes, repeating "dégoûtant!" as loudly as she possibly could. "Good morning," Jane murmured against Maura's growing smile, "but I mean it, move over. It's bacon time."

She squeezed beind her stubborn wife and fished the bacon out of the freezer, very aware of the look she was getting but more aware of the gratification she'd receive the second that bacon was in her mouth. "Adeline's French is coming along wonderfully," Maura said with a note of smugness. Jane very deliberately bumped her shoulder, most of her focus still on the griddle and her breakfast. "Mama says I'm a _natural_," Addie boasted, grinning through her missing front tooth. Somewhere during year 7, "mommy" had become "mama". Mom was still "mom", though she expected she'd become "Ma" come sixteen or seventeen. Not that Addie was ever going to get any older than ten.

"That's great," Jane replied smoothly. Beside her, Maura's subtle smile turned smirky. Jane reached around for a spatula and took the opportunity to mutter in Maura's ear: "She's _eight_, why does she have to be _bilingual_?"

Maura laughed, and Addie busied herself with trying to convince Bass to stick his head out for a (heavily sugared) strawberry. "The formative childhood years are a very good time to begin the study of language," the honey-blonde answered, and Jane fake-gagged quietly to herself. "Several studies have shown that learning another language before the onset of puberty increases skills such as logic and linguistic capacity." If there was one thing Jane had learned from her ten years of marriage, it was that arguing with science was useless and ill-advised. So she made a joke instead.

"I guess I'll just have to look into a translator," she sighed overdramatically. "_I _could always teach you," was Maura's indignant reply. "I hate to break it to you, babe, but I'm pretty well past puberty," Jane laughed. After checking to be sure Addie was still preoccupied in the next room, she leaned into Maura's side and pressed a teasing kiss to the spot just below her ear. "Wouldn't you say?"

"Il ya beaucoup de choses, je dirais, Jane," Maura replied. Jane groaned, letting Maura move her aside without a struggle. "I hate it when you do that," she sighed, watching Maura load plates with the pancakes and bacon. "You love it," Maura purred as she turned toward the table, "et j'aime que vous l'aimez."

Jane groaned again, this time through a smile. _Bacon and Francophiles: the breakfast of champions._ "I'll get you back for this," she vowed. At the time Maura clearly didn't think anything of Jane's seemingly empty threat, but before the day was out, Jane planned to make good on her promise.

.,.

One thing Jane missed about pre-parenthood was the sex. They didn't stop _having_ sex, but more often than not it was rushed and quiet. Sneaking around was fun in it's way, but what Jane missed was being able to take the time to really enjoy her time with Maura. Connection was basically impossible, and she missed it.

Today of all days happened to be one of the days that Frankie and Tommy agreed to take Addie off their hands for a few hours. There had been some pretense, some little white lie (told, of course, by Jane) that convinced the boys that sex wasn't the reason this alone time was so sorely needed, but, truth be told, it was what both women had in mind when the time and the brothers came. Tommy immediately lifted Addie into the air, despite her recent growth spurt, and called her a "little monkey" even though she was tall for her age, with Jane's long and gawky build.

Frankie suggested (loudly) that Tommy put her down, and she grabbed her little bag and went with them. They had decided to take her to the fair a little further up towards Salem, so Addie would be with them overnight.

That was why, the second the Jeep disappeared around the corner, Maura's hand was in Jane's.

They barely made it into the house before they were joined by hands and lips. They didn't make it past the foyer before Jane had Maura pressed up against the wall. From there it was really just a matter of time before Jane's hand had slipped below the waistline of Maura's pants. All notions of 'taking it slow' flew right out the window, but it didn't seem like Maura minded much, with one hand firmly in Jane's hair and the other raking down her back.

And then Jane heard a quiet, huffing laugh, Maura froze, and someone- someone who was not one of them- spoke.

"Uh, you really should start locking your door."

Tommy. Of _freaking _course. Jane's forehead hit the wall. Maura very calmly removed Jane's hand from her pants and composed herself, which sent Tommy into manly giggling again and gave Jane a chance to grit her teeth before she turned around. "What do you _want_?" she asked, at the same moment that Maura asked him, "Is everything okay?"

"If this is a bad time," he shrugged, still laughing through his smile, "I can-"

"No, this is a _fantastic _time."

"Addie left Mr. Bear."

"I'll get him," Maura replied quickly, adding "be nice," under her breath for good measure.

"We need some _alone time_," Tommy said in his impression of Jane, "it's not what you think, you friggin _pervert_..."

She pushed at his shoulder, half-kidding. "Oh, shut _up_. Need I remind you of the time I walked into the living room when Ma and Dad were out and you were ripping Sofia Konstantin's clothes off?" At this Tommy balked slightly, but before he could open his mouth to reply, Maura had reappeared with the teddy bear in hand. Tommy took it with a kind smile, then made a face at Jane and turned to go. Over his shoulder he made sure he got in the final word: "You two enjoy your _alone time, _now," and Jane scowled at his retreating back.

"He could have knocked," she muttered. Maura laughed, taking her hand once more and tugging as she backed into the hallway.

"Come on, Jane. Finir ce que vous avez commencé."


End file.
